The Color Purple by Alice Walker Rationale by Patrick M. Clarke Grade Level and Audience In her award-winning novel The Color Purple, Alice Walker (1982) tells the story of Celie, a young black girl growing up in the reconstruction South of the United States. In a series of letters to God and to her sister Nettie, Celie tells the story of her life, ranging from the trauma of sexual abuse as a child to her success and wealth as an adult. The themes presented in The Color Purple are very advanced, and the details of Celie's sexual assault are very vivid. The emotional and sexual abuse of Celie continues throughout most of her life, and Celie describes each moment in such a way that the reader feels like he or she is there watching. For this reason, The Color Purple is "suitable for mature high school readers" (Gillespie, p. 122). According to Worthington (1985) "certain people may not be ready for Walker's book" (p. 52). Students in an advanced junior or senior year English class or social studies class doing a unit on the treatment of Black Americans after the Civil War would probably benefit the most from The Color Purple. Also, since the novel contains several references and details that might be considered objectionable, Worthington recommends that teachers should always "allow any reader the opportunity to select another book" (p. 52). (See "Alternative Books.") Plot Summary Fourteen year old Celie has led a very rough life. Her mother is very sick, and when she goes to visit the doctor Celie is left alone with her father, Fonso. While the mother is gone, Fonso rapes Celie. Celie's mother dies soon after and now Fonso rapes Celie more and more often, saying "You gonna do what your mammy wouldn't" (p. 1). Celie has two children by her father, both of which he takes away right after they are born. Celie assumes that he has taken the children into the woods and killed them, but actually he has sold them. Fonso eventually remarries, and Celie is a constant reminder to him of his sexual abuse. To get rid of her and the guilty feelings he has he gives her away to be married to a man that is only described as Mr. _____. Life with Mr._____ is no better than life back with her father for Celie. Mr. ____ feels that the only way to keep a woman in her place is to beat her, and he beats Celie very often. Mr. _____ does not love Celie. He simply wanted a wife because he needed someone to take care of him and his wild children, and because the woman that he really loves, Shug Avery, refuses to marry him. Shug is a flamboyant blues singer that travels around the country singing in sleazy bars. Celie's sister Nettie, the only person that Celie has ever truly loved, runs away from home and comes to live with Celie and Mr. _____. Nettie is very beautiful, and Mr. _____ finds her very attractive. He makes many passes at Nettie, but she simply ignores him. Mr. _____ becomes very upset one day when Nettie ignores his advances, and he kicks Nettie out of the house. Nettie and Celie vow to write to each other. Nettie keeps her promise and writes to Celie, but Mr. _____ intercepts the letters before Celie can see them. Celie, ignorant of the letters, decides that Nettie must be dead since she has not written. Nettie was the only person that Celie had ever truly loved, and now that she believes that she is dead Celie has absolutely no will to live anymore. She goes on day to day simply taking all of the abuse that Mr. _____ gives her and never says a word or takes an action of protest. 1 Shug Avery, Mr. _____'s true love, becomes very ill as a result of her wild lifestyle. She has no real home, so she comes to stay with Mr. _____. Celie feeds Shug and nurses her back to health, and as she gets to know her better Celie finds herself falling in love with Shug. As Celie nurses Shug back to physical health, Shug decides that she will nurse Celie back to emotional health. Eventually Shug is completely healthy, and her and Celie have become very close to each other. One day Shug goes to get the mail and finds a letter from Nettie to Celie before Mr. _____ has a chance to see it. She shows it to Celie, who is overjoyed to find that her sister is alive. Shug and Celie then search through Mr. _____'s bedroom and find a whole stack of letters that Nettie has written to Celie. Nettie writes that she has joined a Christian missionary group that has gone to Africa to Christianize the natives. The missionary group is led by a minister and his wife who have two adopted children. Nettie can tell by looking at them that the children are Celie's. Nettie also writes that the man who they thought was their father actually was not. Their real father died at an early age and they moved in with another family. That means that Celie's two children were not born out of incest. Celie is incredibly happy to learn that her sister and her two children are still alive, but she is also fiercely angry with Mr. _____ for keeping this news from her. This anger finally gives her the courage to stand up to Mr. _____. When Mr. _____ attempts to slap Celie she jabs him with a knife. Then she decides to leave Mr. _____ and move with Shug to Memphis. Mr. _____ says that Celie will leave over his dead body, and Celie responds with surprising authority. "It's time to leave you and enter into the Creation. And your dead body is just the welcome mat I need" (Walker, p. 207). After this statement Mr. _____ leaves Celie alone. In Memphis, Celie starts a new business sewing pants. With the help of Shug she becomes very successful, and she also learns how to love. Men have beaten Celie throughout her life, and women are the only people that she is able to feel love for. Shug does not feel as strongly about Celie as Celie does for Shug and she leaves her for a nineteen-year-old boy named Germaine. When Shug leaves Celie, so does her happiness. Fonso, the man who claimed to be Celie's father, dies and leaves Celie his house. Celie moves in and continues her pants-making business there. Celie eventually becomes friends with Mr. _____, who has changed a great deal since Celie's departure. He has learned a great deal about life and love since Celie left him, and he states what he has learned near the end of the novel: I start to wonder why us need love. Why us suffer. Why us black. Why us men and women. Where do children really come from. It didn't take long to realize I didn't hardly know nothing...The more I wonder, he say, the more I love. (p. 289) Celie is developing a friendship with Mr. _____, but she can never love a man again and believes that love will never be back in her life. But then her sister Nettie returns from Africa with her two children. The family is reunited, and Celie feels a happiness and love that she has never before experienced. Celie's final letter to God states that, despite her old age, "I think this the youngest us ever felt" (p. 295). Theoretical Support and Redeeming Values Donelson and Nilsen (1989) state that "one of the great values and pleasures of literature is that it frees us to travel vicariously to other times and places" (p. 374). For this reason they suggest using literature in a social studies classroom. The Color Purple may be fiction, but it would be a very powerful way to help a student understand what Black Americans went through in the early 1900's. But The Color Purple almost was never published because of its realistic nature. Alice Walker states that: 2 When I finished writing The Color Purple I sent it to a leading Black women's magazine, believing they would recognize its value better than anyone. The magazine declined to run an excerpt from it, however, because according to an editor, "Black people don't talk like that. And I suppose in her mind they never did, and if they did, who cared? (Garrett & McCue, 1990, p. 229). But the character of Celie is based on Walker's step-grandmother, Rachel, who did speak like that. The Color Purple is full of social and historical values that merit the novel a place in any social studies unit on Black Americans. Rosenblatt's theories support the use of The Color Purple in the classroom. Rosenblatt (1983) states that if a student is aware of his own past and the history of mankind and its injustices, he will "be better able to make choices, to dominate, and if necessary, to remold his environment" (p. 156). Students who read The Color Purple and see the injustices that people have been forced to endure in the past will be better able to make sure that these mistakes are not repeated in the future. Kohlberg (1969) states that the moral development of humans pass through six stages, ranging from early childhood where avoiding punishment is the main objective to the postconventional stages where ethical principles guide a person.